From 6,000 to 60: Why We're Downsizing Our Community On Purpose
From 6,000 to 60: Why We're Downsizing Our Community On PurposeWhen it comes to community, larger isn't always better
Dear subscribers, We recently took our 6,000+ member community and limited it to 60 people. Let me explain why we did this and what we learned along the way. Here’s the story in four phases:
This post is brought to you by…Solana Foundation Solana is a fast and scalable L1 blockchain with a thriving NFT and DeFi ecosystem. Top project include Magic Eden (NFT marketplace), Phantom (Solana wallet), and Raydium (DeFi). Solana is also experimenting with payment and a mobile phone. If you’re interested in building for Solana, check out our profile below. 1. The honeymoonI started the Odyssey community in November 2021 to help people learn about crypto. For the first few months, it wildly exceeded my expectations:
More importantly, a few members stepped up to become active contributors. Together, we built a great website and ran a successful bootcamp. We had grand plans to issue a 10,000 pfp NFT collection to raise more money. Then I had my second child and the crypto markets crashed. 2. The trough of sorrowI took a few months off to bond with my newborn daughter. When I returned, the community wasn’t doing too well:
I started to feel a pit in my stomach when I realized that:
After all, who wants to sit in a Discord server with thousands of random people? 3. The honest reflectionI started to think about the online communities that I actually enjoy being a part of. Three came to mind: 1. My college friend group chatWe use this chat to keep in touch after moving to different parts of the country. It works because we all know each other in real life and there’s no agenda other than to maintain relationships. 2. Lenny’s newsletter communityI pay for Lenny’s newsletter and visit his community maybe once a month. Although I don’t know many people there, I always get a thoughtful answer each time I ask a question. Lenny also does a great job helping members connect through online events, IRL meetups, and contributor shoutouts. 3. Midnight Labs communityMy friend invited me to join Midnight Labs - a community for NFT collectors and builders. Most NFT communities gate access behind an expensive NFT, but this community was different:
The NFT is given out for free to anyone who contributes enough. Remarkably, it currently has a 9 eth floor price on OpenSea. This “free” NFT has value because the community itself is valuable. 4. The slow buildI knew what I had to do. It’s better to have 60 people who care about each other than 6,000+ lurkers. So I put the following plan into action together with a few contributors:
This process essentially flips the default NFT community on its head: Instead of:
1. Buy an NFT
2. Join a community
3. Ask for utility (when airdrop?!)
How about:
1. Join a community
2. Create utility with other members
3. Earn the NFT
Make the community the utility. After all, many founders and CEOs personally review every employee that gets hired to their company. I believe that communities should be built the same way:
I don’t know if our community will thrive long-term. But I do know that I now have a few dozen people that I actually want to get to know and hang out with. And that’s a good start.
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